These people lived in lands where the arctic night extended to two moths and the dawns and dusks lasted one whole month. They were hunters and herders. They feared the long night, prayed to the Goddess of Night to let them pass through it safely. They feared the wolf (
Dire Wolf -
Aenocyon dirus) which weighed about one and a half times today's wolves) for themselves and their live stock.
Keep off the she-wolf and the wolf, O Urmya, keep the thief away; Easy be thou for us to pass.
Clearly hath she come nigh to me who decks the dark with richest hues: O Morning, cancel it (the night) like debts.
These have I brought to thee like kine. O Night, thou Child of Heaven, accept this laud as for a conqueror.
Rig Veda: Rig-Veda, Book 10: HYMN CXXVII. Night.
The English "wolf" stems from the
Old English wulf, which is itself thought to be derived from the
Proto-Germanic *
wulfaz. The
Proto-Indo-European root *
wĺ̥kʷos may also be the source of the
Latin word for the animal
lupus (*
lúkʷos). .. Wolves have a long history of interactions with humans, having been despised and hunted in most
pastoral communities because of their attacks on livestock, while conversely being respected in some
agrarian and
hunter-gatherer societies.
Wolf - Wikipedia
A. d. dirus was on average 68 kg (150 lb). Its skull and dentition matched those of
C. lupus, but its teeth were larger with greater shearing ability, and its bite force at the
canine tooth was stronger than any known
Canis species. .. Dire wolves lived as recently as 9,500 years ago, according to dated remains.
Dire wolf - Wikipedia
The word
*wĺ̥kʷos is a thematic accented zero-grade noun perhaps derived from the adjective
*wl̥kʷós (“dangerous”); compare
Hittite (walkuwa-, “something negative”),
Old Irish olc (“evil”),
Sanskrit (vṛká, “not safe”, literally “wild”, vṛká-tāt, “savagery”). .. Alternatively, the word may be a derivative of the verbal root
*welh₂- (“to tear up”). In either case, the word's formation closely resembles that of
*h₂ŕ̥tḱos (“bear”), another thematic accented zero-grade noun whose referent is an animal subject to cultural taboos.
Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/wĺ̥kʷos - Wiktionary